D389 - The kernel log device is fed from this project's own reporting

Status: assumed Date: 2026-08-30

A kernel log device is a bounded ring of lines drawn from this project's own reporting layer - a call it could not serve, a name it could not resolve, a path it does not hold - served read-only, where an empty ring means not yet ready rather than end of file.

Why: Reimplementing a kernel log with invented content would be a fabrication a guest could read as authoritative; reporting facts this project already produces about the run gives a guest something true to read, on the understanding that its content describes this project's own decisions, not the platform's messages.

Rejected:

• Leaving the device absent: sends any guest that opens it down an error path over something this project can answer honestly.
• Reporting end of file when the ring is empty: a kernel log has no end while the kernel runs, and a guest told otherwise stops reading too soon.